Section 2: Art All Over

Section 1 should have given you some vocabulary and ideas to begin thinking about and talking about art.

You can now begin to discuss what you’re looking at, what it means, and – if you know it – the background of a work of art. Learning to look is a skill, like any other.

Because I’m a painter, and museums are full paintings, we’ve primarily focused on painting – but there is art all over. Books, buildings, clothes, gardens, photos, jewelry, cars, dance, plays, food, pottery, metal work, textiles, wood work – the list of what people make meaningful and beautiful is almost endless.

It would take a lifetime or two to explore it all, but we only have about a month, so we’ll look at two uncommon arts (and artists) and one very common – maybe the most common – art: movies.

Some questions to think about as we go over this section:

Is what I’m showing you art?

Could you argue that everything is art?

Then what makes something art? What qualities separate it from the every day?

Does feeling have to be involved?

Does it have to be beautiful?

Does it have to be meaningful?

Does it have to be intriguing?

Is what we like completely relative, or are there standards that need to be met?

Are there different levels of art? Is some more important than others? Is none of it important? After all, what real good is it?

Can art lose its importance over time? Does it need to be renewed each generation or are there basic human ideas, needs, feelings that art always picks up on?

Why are our opinions often so different? What goes into our opinions? Can they change?

Why do people go to so much trouble to make art? Buy it? Show it? Argue about it?

Are artists different? If so, what qualities do they possess? Is it just that they have more or less of something, or are they completely different?

Is everyone an artist in some way, however small?

What is style? Why is it important? Why does it change? Do we change first, or does the style? What does it reflect?

What if there were no art – every car, every dress, every house, every hairstyle just did what it was designed to do? That’s how it works it nature – so what’s with us?

Just for fun, here is a clip from The Colbert Report. What changes the work from a silly photo to serious art? Do you agree with Steve Martin’s judgment?